


Broken circles

by Kit_Brightside



Series: The Path not Taken [1]
Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Multi, Nya starts out bad but she gets better, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2019-11-18 05:33:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 19,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18114308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kit_Brightside/pseuds/Kit_Brightside
Summary: "If I'm a bad person, you don't like me; well I guess I'll make my own way. It's a circle, I mean cycle, I can't excite you anymore. Where's your gavel? Your Jury? what's my offense this time? You're not a judge but if you're gonna judge me, well sentence me to another life." - Paramore"I can't do this anymore." Agitation crackled under his skin."Then let me ease your burden."





	1. Prologue

"So… you two went to the future-"

"We didn't _go_ to the future," Jay interrupts the master of ice. "it was more like… we came back to the past. Only not like when Garmadon had the mega weapon, otherwise there'd be two of us, but more like in a video game where you go back to a previous save."

"Like how you save right before a big decision and if you chose the wrong one you reload?"

"I'm not sure I like that analogy…" Nya sighs.

After the whole mess with Nadakhan, Nya and Jay were trying to explain what happened to the others. Of course, between Jay's rambling and backtracking when he remembered something important, and Nya's constant interruptions to either correct Jay or just complain that he wasn't telling it right, they'd gotten nowhere fast.

"W-well, uh, then it's kind of like…" Jay makes some vague hand gestures, as if he could grab a more 'appropriate' analogy out of thin air. "Like… uh… hitting rewind on a DVD? Only it doesn't… go… the same… like an actual DVD would…"

"This is getting us nowhere." Cole shakes his head. "I wish there was some way we could know what happened without having to hear it second hand."

"Ugh…" Jay groans. "Man, I never want to hear those words _ever_ again!"

There's a knock at the door that surprises all of them. They share a look before Lloyd, who was the closest, walks over to the door and opens it. There's a long moment of silence before Lloyd looks back at Zane, then at whoever was in the doorway, then back at Zane, before finally saying.

"Wha…?"

"Hello, it is nice to meet you." A voice that was almost an exact match for Zane's could be heard from the doorway. "I am Echo Zane. I was created to protect those who cannot protect themselves."

"Echo?!" Jay calls out, sounding both excited and confused. He quickly moves over to the door and nudges Lloyd out of the way. "You're really here! Why're you here? How'd you get here?"

"It is good to see you again, Jay." Echo Zane says politely, before motioning to the figure standing across the street, leaning against a building. "And I contacted Ronin to ask for his assistance in getting here."

"Okay… Wait, you said again. Does that mean you remember the previous timeline?"

"Previous timeline? I was not aware we were in another." He seems to think for a moment, before nodding. "It would explain why I was suddenly back in the lighthouse, and why Ronin did not seem to understand who I was or why I was asking him for assistance. By the way, he said to tell you that you apparently owe him one? He did not specify what 'one' you owe him, though."

"He just meant we owe him a favor… Or money, knowing him." Jay shrugs, sparing a glare for the con artist.

"Uh, could one of you explain just why there are two Zanes?" Kai demands.

"I am Echo Zane."

"Well, after Zane's dad got locked up in the lighthouse, I think he decided to make a replacement Zane." Jay ushers the bronze nindroid inside. "Which makes him your little brother, Zane!"

"Brother?" Both nindroids question simultaneously.

"Yes." Jay laughs. "You two are family!"

"Family…" Zane mutters, appearing to consider it for a moment before smiling softly. "It is nice to meet you, Brother."

"Yes, it is nice to meet you, as well." They share a stiff handshake.

"Ok… so I guess it isn't so unbelievable for there to be two Zanes." Cole says slowly.

"I am Echo Zane."

"Yeah, about that, maybe we should just call you Echo. To avoid confusion, I mean."

"But I am Echo Zane." The younger nindroid says with confusion.

"It is a nickname." Zane informs his brother. "It makes it easier to address the individual it is given to."

"I see." Echo Zane says seriously. "Then I will allow you all to call me Echo, even though I am Echo Zane."

A loud knocking on the door startles them. This time it's Cole who answers the door.

"Took you long enough." Ronin huffs, walking right through the ghost to get inside.

" _Really_?"

"So, did the tin can give you my message?"

"Tin cans cannot talk." Echo says. "So I do not think one would be able to pass on a message for you."

"I believe he was making fun of you." Zane says, glaring at the criminal.

"But I am not made of tin, nor am I a can."

"That's the point." Kai snorts.

"That is illogical."

" _Anyway_ …" Ronin drags everyone's attention back to himself. "I had to go out of my way to pick this guy up and he promised me compensation."

"I did not."

"Yeah, you did, actually. I told you it wouldn't be a free ride."

"Yes, but you asked me to deliver a message. I did. We are even now."

Ronin seemed to consider this for a moment before laughing.

"Well, I guess you're right. Hey, if you need a job, I could always use someone who's good at spotting loopholes."

"He will not be needing a job." Zane says immediately, stepping in front of the other nindroid.

"Hey, calm down, tin man. It was only an offer."

"I will not allow my only family to become a criminal."

"I was made to protect those who cannot protect themselves." Echo leans to the side to get a better view around his brother. "I would not partake in criminal activity."

"I never said anything about anything _illegal_." Ronin rolls his eyes. "You know, you all act so high and mighty for a group of vigilantes."

"We aren't a group of vigilantes." Lloyd says. "Why don't you just tell us what you want so you can leave?"

"…REX could use a few upgrades. Now, I know you lot have come into some money as of your recent fame, so I thought you'd be kind enough to help out a poor man like myself."

"Actually, most of the money goes right back into whatever it is that Dareth is doing to help make us famous." Cole says. "We aren't hurting for money, but we don't have enough to get whatever top-of-the-line upgrades you're probably imagining."

"Ah, I see… well, in that case, why don't we make things a bit easier on your wallets? You have a vehicle expert here who could help install the upgrades, rather than go through the hassle of paying for labor."

"Oh no." Jay immediately objects, walking up to Ronin and poking him in the chest. "You just want some alone time with Nya!"

"Yeah, I'm against that, too." Kai crosses his arms over his chest, giving Ronin a disapproving glare.

"Would you two calm down?" Nya scoffs, rolling her eyes, before turning to Ronin with a smile. "I would love to help you."

"But…" Jay seemed to flounder. "But we still haven't finished explaining what happened to the others!"

"You can explain it to them yourself, Jay." She waves him off, grabs Ronin's arm and starts heading for the door. "So what kind of upgrades were you looking to make?"

"Well, I had a few things in mind, but maybe it'd be good to get a second opinion."

The triumphant, mocking smile he tosses Jay over his shoulder leaves the blue ninja infuriated, but Nya's own words leaves him feeling a tad helpless. He should trust her, right? She chose him, after all, and even if he didn't trust Ronin, he could trust her.

_Just like you trusted her before?_

_Just like you trusted Cole?_

Jay bites the inside of his cheek, trying to will those nasty thoughts away. He'd gotten over that, had moved on, forgiven and forgotten…

A hand rests on his shoulder, gives it a light squeeze, and although it's cold like Zane (and Echo too) it has an underlying strength to it that could only belong to Cole.

"Don't worry about it." The ninja of earth assures him, once more squeezing his shoulder before letting go.

"If you do not mind my asking," Echo Zane speaks up. "what was it that you were explaining to the others?"

"Huh? Oh! R-right, that…" The ninja of lightning looked longingly at the door for a moment before turning to the others and giving them a wane smile. "Maybe you can make it a little easier, actually."

"I would be happy to help."

"Great! Ok, first off, can you project things like Zane?"

End Prologue


	2. Chapter One

"Ok, everyone's here." Cole said as soon as the last of the ninja (plus sensei Wu) took their seats around the table. "Why did you want to have a meeting?"

"After everything Jay, Nya, and Echo told and showed us, I believed it imperative that we know as much as possible about djinn just in case we ever run into another one. While Echo and I are still conducting research, there is one thing we found that we believe you need to know."

Echo began to push some buttons on the main console, bringing up a picture of Nadakhan.

"As we mentioned before, this is the djinn that Jay, Nya, and I fought in the alternate future." He pushed a few more buttons, bringing up a silhouette with the name 'Delara' under it. "We know that Nadakhan had a love interest who died shortly after his imprisonment, and that, according to first hand witnesses who knew her, looked almost exactly like Nya."

Zane gave Echo a little nod, which the other nindroid returned.

"Now, around the time that Delara died, a single infant was left on the doorstep of a nearby orphanage, covered in blood, according to the records, with nothing to indicate the identity of the infant or the parents." A picture of the orphanage in question, as well as a picture of a babe that looked on the verge of tears is brought up on screen. "I do not believe it is a stretch to say that this child could be theirs."

"So… are you saying their descendants could be running around causing havoc!?" Jay jumps up out of his seat, causing it to fall over with a clatter. "We barely survived the last time, and you think there could be more djinn out there?!"

"Please allow me to finish before you draw your conclusions, Jay. I promise it is not as bad as it seems."

"I don't know…" Cole says, running a hand through his hair. "If the djinn are as powerful as you guys said, even without the ability to wish for themselves, it could be disastrous if even _one_ of them turned on Ninjago."

"As I said before, it is not as bad as it seems." Zane gives his friends a small, but warm, smile. "After tracing the lineage of the infant, it came down to just two living descendants."

"Two?" Kai scoffs. "Sounds like two too many."

"Yeah." Nya agrees. "Nadakhan was bad enough, I don't even want to know what kind of freaks his descendants are!"

"Yes… well…" Zane couldn't stifle his laughter.

"What is so funny?" Echo asks.

"I explained irony to you, yes?"

"Yes." There's a brief moment before his golden eyes light up in recognition. "Oh! You mean that it is funny because they are the descendants that they are talking so poorly about?"

"Dude, if you have to explain it…" Jay mutters, before freezing. "Wait... d-does that mean they're djinn?"

"Actually, Kai would be a djinn and Nya would be a genie, since Kai is male and Nya is female."

"Hold up!" Kai demands, glaring at the two nindroids. "How can you be so sure that this kid is even related to Nadakhan? I mean, nothing mentioned that Delara was ever pregnant, right?"

"No, but they do not give an exact date of her death, either. It is just 'shortly after Nadakhan was imprisoned,' which could have been anything from a few days to a few months. Also, I doubt she would have made such a fact well known, to either the crew or the general public. As the love of a well known and feared pirate, she would be a target for whatever enemies he'd made."

"Also," Echo adds. "It could be possible that not even Nadakhan himself knew."

"But we don't have the power to grant wishes like Nadakhan did." Nya says, shaking her head. "And what about our elemental powers?"

"Well, djinn are fire spirits, so it could be possible that your djinn blood is the source of that power. And, as every generation gets farther from the djinn blood, those powers would get weaker. Even if we assume the powers are strengthened by having children with other descendants, you'd never be able to be as powerful as a full blooded djinn naturally." Zane motions to Echo, who pulls up a very large family tree, which they had appeared to assemble themselves. It had a lot of branches that appeared to just end, as the person died without leaving any kin, and at the bottom was Kai and Nya's father, with the two familiar ninja under him.

"So, Kai and Nya are, like, djinn royalty?" Lloyd asks, after a minute of studying the complex tree.

"That is what we deduced, yes."

"Does that mean that they _can_ grant wishes?" Cole asks, after studying Kai for a moment. "If I wished for something would it come true?"

"Don't!" Jay yells immediately. "How many times do I have to tell you all not to before you listen to me?!"

"I wasn't going to _actually_ make a wish, Jay."

"I am not certain if it can be called granting wishes, exactly, but I do believe they have an influence on their surroundings whether they know it or not." Zane motioned to Echo again, who changes the screen to list their many adventures. "A lot of the things around us that happen have rather… skewed results."

"Skewed how?" Cole asks.

"Every time something goes wrong, we fail to stop it until the very last moment. Despite the many dangerous situations we get into, no one gets seriously injured or killed…" He looks troubled for a moment. "Aside from losing Sensei Garmadon and my brief death, we have suffered no real losses."

"What about your father's death?" Sensei Wu asks, carefully studying the nindroid's face.

"My father…" He looks over at Echo. "Our father had already exceeded his time here. He had accepted that fact, and I respect his decision."

"I see." The old man ran his hand over his beard a few times.

"So you're saying that everything we've done, all our accomplishments, are just due to magic?" Kai huffs.

"No. It might have been a factor, but I believe that it also caused many of our setbacks as well." Zane's eyes linger on Jay for a moment, flicker to Cole, then he glances away. While his brothers might not have noticed, Cole did, and he files that away for later, when he could ask the nindroid about it alone.

"Our research did not end there." Echo helpfully supplies, changing the screen to bring back the family tree, before zooming into one person in specific. "This descendant had a lot of strange things happening around him. Eventually he went to their towns medicine woman, more commonly called the town witch in those days, and asked for a cure."

"While there were no records of what the cure was, it apparently worked. It even undid some of the less permanent changes, too." Zane picks up where Echo left off. "It is not a cure, not the kind he had searched for, as he had only thought of the negative impacts on his life, and that was what he sought to correct."

"So… why would we want the cure?" Nya asks tentatively. "I mean, yeah, some strange stuff does happen, but like you said, nothing really bad has happened. Can't we just try to… I don't know, control it?"

"There is another possible outcome of your powers." Zane says somberly. "I am not sure if it was because of how strong he was, but Nadakhan was able to change the past. You and Jay can attest to that fact."

"As can I."

"Yes, as can my brother." Zane gives Echo an apologetic look, which the bronze nindroid seems to not quite understand, but doesn't question at the moment. "We do not know whether the past has already been changed, and if so, how much it's been changed or will continue to change."

"But if that's true…" Lloyd says slowly. "Doesn't that mean this 'cure' will fix everything? Will any of us even know each other if that happens? We could all have had vastly different lives up 'till whenever the change occurred."

"I do not think such a drastic change will occur. To clarify, the cure will only fix the immaterial, and while I may be stretching the definition a bit, I believe our histories would fall into the 'material' category."

"Why's that?" Jay asks, tilting his head to the side. "I mean, the only real, physical part of history is what's written in the books, right?"

"I… I apologize. I do not have any evidence to support this, I am merely working on what I feel to be true in that regard."

"Do not worry if it is confusing." Echo says reassuringly. "I do not understand what my brother is saying either."

"No, I think I get it… It has to do with your future vision, right?" Jay asks, looking thoughtful. "It's been awhile since you've seen anything…"

"It is only a feeling I have." Zane doesn't say anything about the second thing Jay said, and Cole notes that down in his head for future reference as well.

"Oh."

"So… you think we should go find this cure?" Lloyd looks over at Kai and Nya. "Do you think it'll affect their elemental powers?"

"I do not know." Zane shakes his head. "But I can always have Pixal analyze whatever it is that we find before we use it."

"Don't we get a say in this?" Nya asks. "I'm still not sure this is such a good idea."

"No, sis, I-… I think they have a point." Kai admits begrudgingly.

"What?! Kai, I thought you'd at least be on my side-"

"I'm always on your side, Nya, but if this… whatever it is, is also hurting the people around us, I'd rather know I did everything in my power to stop it."

"I…" She sighs, before nodding. "You're right."

"Okay, so, we know _what_ we're doing." Cole says, sounding a bit more grounded and in charge, even as he tells himself not to take control of the situation. "But do we know _where_ we're going?"

"We have a clue for where to start searching." Zane nods. "The village where the medicine woman lived. If she passed down her secrets to her successors, there could be a chance that they may know the secret to the cure."

"Alright then… when do we leave?"

"Now." Kai says. "This really isn't something that can wait."

"But I haven't finished helping Ronin upgrade REX, yet." At a look from her brother, she quickly backtracks with a laugh. "I-I mean, I need to tell him that it'll have to wait until later."

"Alright, ninja." Lloyd says, standing up and drawing everyone's attention. "Let's get ready to move."

End chapter one


	3. Chapter Two

"Honestly, I know Dareth is only doing his job, but did he have to do it so well? We can barely act as ninja with so many eyes following our every move." They'd arrived in the village, which was now a bustling city, and were trying to figure out the best way to find the person they were looking for without causing a ruckus. "We'll draw less attention if we split up."

" _Great_ …" Jay sighs.

"Since there are six of us," Cole goes on as if Jay hadn't said anything at all. "we should split into groups of two."

"Yeah, that didn't really work out before, Cole. I mean, I know you don't remember, but we were all captured. By Ronin. And thrown in jail."

"We aren't wanted criminals this time, Jay, and we aren't evading the authorities." He assures the other exasperatedly. "Come on, Zane, we'll start in the northern part of the city."

The master of earth and the master of ice walk off, leaving the others to figure out how to split up among themselves. Lloyd, Kai, Nya, and Jay all look at each other.

"Nya?" Jay asks hopefully.

"I think I'm going to join Lloyd, actually. If we were found together the media would have a field day with it."

"Oh… uh, yeah, I guess that wouldn't be good?"

"Come on, lover boy." Kai says with a pitying sigh. "We'll start in the western half of the city."

* * *

"Hey, Zane, can I ask you a question?"

"I believe you already have, Cole."

"Yeah, very funny." Cole rolls his eyes. He misses the days before Zane understood sarcasm and how to use it. "Listen, I was just wondering… is there something more to this? Like, Kai and Nya possibly screwing with reality without realizing it, I mean."

Zane doesn't answer at first, then he quietly says.

"I think I may have an idea as to how their powers may work."

"Really? Why didn't you say something sooner?"

"Because I am… worried." Zane looks up at the sky, but rather than studying the clouds, he appears to be lost in thought. "If I am right, it puts something into question that would be rather… unfortunate, if true. I am not sure how they would all react, and if I am wrong, I do not want to be the cause of contention."

"That sounds heavy." Cole agrees, moving his own gaze to the sky above them. "Care to share the load? I'm pretty strong, you know."

To help prove his point, the ghost flexes one of his arms.

"I think you have been spending too much time with Jay." Zane chuckles.

_Yeah, but no matter how good a friend I try to be, it never seems to be enough. I just can't bridge the gap that's formed between us._

Cole swallows the bitter feeling trying to well up and forces himself to focus on the moment, even as he feels his fingers itching to grab one of the candied apples from the street cart they'd just passed.

_Wait, candied apples? It's been way too long since I'd had one-_

"I'll start with how I think their powers work." Cole is brought back into the moment by Zane's voice, giving his friend his full attention and promising himself he'd come back to grab a candied apples later, maybe with Jay, if he could get the blue ninja away from Nya for more than a minute.

* * *

"How long are you going to remain here?" Echo asks the criminal who had made himself comfortable in the ninja's flying home, the Bounty.

"Until they finish whatever 'urgent business' that stopped Nya from helping me work on REX."

"We do not know how long it will take." Echo could probably make an estimate on how long it would take the six ninja to sweep the whole city, but the ninja had almost all shown some sort of distaste for the man, and he trusted Jay's and his brother's judgment at least (he didn't know the other's well enough to gauge them on trust worthiness), so he did not want the criminal to stay any longer than necessary. "I can contact you as soon as they are done, if you want."

"Geez, really?" The man says in an odd tone. "That's so kind of you, but I couldn't ask you to go to so much trouble."

"It is no trouble at all, I assure you."

"Nope. I think I'll just stay here." He glances down the hall that leads to where Sensei Wu is drinking tea in the dining room. "Or maybe I'll _explore_ a little bit."

"I do not think that is a good idea. Some of the rooms here are private and I do not think the others would appreciate you looking around them without their explicit permission."

"How do you know I don't have their 'explicit permission' Rust bucket?" Ronin makes sure to make quotation marks with his fingers, so that his words wouldn't be misunderstood.

"I… do not." He admits.

"So then under what authority do you think you can stop me?"

"The ninja left me in charge of the ship while they were away." He says proudly. "I am to watch over it until they return, or guide it to wherever they are, should the need arise."

"Yeah, yeah…" Ronin rolls his eyes, opening the first door he comes across. "Closet."

"I think you should have your eyes checked."

"Excuse me? Just what about a tiny room full of mops, brooms, buckets, and rags makes you think this isn't a closet?"

"Oh, I did not mean to say you were wrong about that. I just meant that, since you have confused me with both a can and now a bucket, that perhaps your vision could use some… assistance."

Ronin just shakes his head and moves onto the next door.

"Bunkbeds? What are they, five?" He snorts and steps into the room. "I'm surprised they haven't color coded the sheets."

"I believe the bunk beds are to save on space." Echo trails in behind Ronin, stops at one of the bunks, and gestures to the lower bed. "Since Lloyd was not sharing his with anyone, I was given this bunk."

"So you get to have an endless sleep over with five annoying do-gooders. I am so happy for you."

"Thank you…?"

"Did they really not teach you sarcasm?"

"What are you doing?" Echo is instantly by Ronin's side, who has a book in his hands.

"Nothing."

"That does not look like nothing. That looks exactly like something."

"Wow, why don't you have a Nobel prize yet?"

"I do not know what a no-bell prize is, but I do not have need of bell-less prizes, just put that back where you found it."

"Are you pulling my chain?"

"I was not aware you had a chain."

"You're pulling my chain."

"Are you going to put that back?"

"I will, I will… when I'm done with it."

Ronin dodges Echo's first attempt to grab the book.

"That is not good enough!" Echo gives the criminal a serious look. "Put it back now or I will make you."

"You'll _make_ me?" Ronin raises an eyebrow at the bronze nindroid. "And how, exactly, will you _make_ me when you can't _catch_ me?"

"Catch-?" In the blink of an eye the window is thrown open and Ronin is gone. Echo rushes over, scanning the air below them until… there! Ronin gliding away. "Do not think this is over you fiend!"

Echo steps away from the window, pauses, then softly says to himself.

"But how am I supposed to give chase without leaving the Bounty unprotected?"

* * *

"Man…" Cole breathes out a long sigh. "I just… you're right. It puts almost everything into question."

"So what do you think? Should we tell the others?"

"I… No. I think you were right to keep quiet about this. If you're wrong, and I really, truly hope you are wrong, telling the others would only cause more problems."

"And what if I'm right?"

"Then…" Cole sighs again, running a hand over his face. "Then we're going to have to do some major damage control."

End chapter two


	4. Chapter Three

"You'd think a 'medicine woman' would stand out more." Nya sighs.

"Well, maybe we're thinking about things a little too literally?" Lloyd suggests, looking at the notebook where he'd written all the places they'd visited. "Maybe we should start looking at, like, drugs stores or something."

"I don't know…"

"What could the harm be?" Lloyd flips his notebook closed. "I mean, we already checked that 'herbal remedies' store."

"I guess you have a point."

"Get off me you crazy robot!"

"I have finally caught you, fiend!"

Nya and Lloyd both stop, look at each other, then towards the direction of the yelling.

"Should we go see what Ronin is doing?"

"Ah… yeah. We probably shouldn't just ignore it."

With that decided, the two set off.

There was a large crowd gathered, the sound of camera shutters going off and excited chattering fills the air. It takes some work for them to get to the center, but when they do the sight that greets them is not what they expected.

Ronin and Echo where wrestling… and Echo appears to have the upper hand at the moment.

"Just what is going on here?!" Nya demands, causing the two to pause to look up at her.

"Hey, Nya, what a surprise running into you here." Ronin manages to say casually despite the headlock that Echo has him in.

"Hello, Nya. Hello, Lloyd." Echo greets them with a smile. "There is no need to worry, I have caught this fiend."

"Echo, let him go." Nya admonishes the nindroid, who looks torn.

"But…"

" _Now_."

"You do not understand-" The nindroid tries to explain, only to be cut off by Nya harshly saying.

"You are _causing_ a _scene_."

After a moment of hesitation the nindroid lets go. Ronin springs to his feet, dusts himself off, and straightens his clothes. Meanwhile Lloyd helps Echo to stand up.

"Thanks, Nya." Ronin gives the master of water a charming smile. "I have no idea what got into that bucket of bolts."

"You know perfectly well why I was chasing you!" Echo insists. "Unless your memory is as poor as your vision. In which case, let me remind you that I was merely trying to get the book you took back."

"Wait, you took something?" Lloyd turns to the criminal, who puts on an innocent look.

"I have no idea what he's talking about. I don't have any books on me." He holds his arms out. "You can check me if you want."

"You must have hidden it somewhere." The green ninja decides.

"Let's not be so hasty." Nya tries to smooth over. "I mean, Echo isn't exactly…"

"I am not what, exactly?" The bronze nindroid inquires.

Suddenly there's a microphone shoved into their faces and professional cameras seem to appear from the wall of flesh surrounding them.

"Zane, why did you change your colors?"

"I am Echo Zane."

"Let me explain." Lloyd sighs. "This is Zane's younger brother, Echo."

"And how does a nindroid have a younger brother?"

"They were made by the same person, obviously."

"So, have you joined the battle for Nya's heart?"

"…What?"

"You two were on a date before the commotion started."

"We were not on a date!" Nya quickly yells. "We were investigating!"

"Is that what you tell Jay?"

" _Excuse_ me?"

"Several sources have said that you have cheated on the blue ninja several times."

"I am not a cheater!" She yells before drenching both the reporter and the camera man with water. "Good luck spreading your lies with water logged equipment!"

" _Nya_!" Lloyd hisses.

Echo moves to stand in front of the two drenched people.

"I would rather not fight a friend, but if you continue this reckless behavior I will have no choice but to fight you."

"She wasn't attacking them, _right_ _Nya_?" Lloyd gives the master of water a serious look, hoping she'd see reason and back down. Dareth was going to have a field day with this, and Lloyd just hoped he could convince the man not to try and include him in that stupid love triangle, but first they need to keep the media from reporting that Nya had assaulted the paparazzi.

"They're lucky that's all I did!" At her words Echo moves into a fighting stance.

"Nya, you need to calm down and go back to the ship." Nya seems like she's going to say something, so the green ninja goes on. "That's an order."

"A… an order?" She scoffs. "And what makes you think you can order me around?!"

"Because I'm the leader of the ninja." Lloyd's quickly losing his temper. How did Cole put up with the constant insubordination and flippant attitudes of the others for so long? "And as the leader, I have full authority to tell an out of control ninja to _go_ _home_."

"Well… well I never wanted to join your stupid boys club, anyway!" She turns and storms off, the crowd parting for her as she approached.

Ronin glances at the two before quickly moving to follow after the master of water.

Lloyd sighs, turns to find Echo was doing his best to help the reporter and the camera man in drying their equipment off.

"Echo."

"Yes?"

"Come on, let's go back to the ship."

"Oh, yes, of course." He moves to stand before the green ninja. "After we find the book that fiend took."

Lloyd wants to bash his head into the nearest wall.

"Forget the book, Echo. If it's important we can look for it later."

"I see. Alright."

The nindroid looks a bit disappointed, which did make Lloyd feel a little bad, but they don't have time to scour the city for some random book. Hopefully it isn't important.

* * *

"Hey, Kai?" Jay says, staring up and out of the window of the shop they were in.

"What?" Kai asks irritably. Jay had insisted they check the antique shop, even though the master of fire was sure it would be a dead end, and now he wasn't even bothering to pay attention?

"Doesn't that look like the Bounty?" Jay laughs a little nervously. "I mean, we told Echo to keep it hidden, so there's no way it's the Bounty, but doesn't it look… pretty much exactly like the Bounty?"

"Sorry about wasting your time." Kai tells the cashier before he steps up to the window next to Jay and follows his gaze. What he sees doesn't exactly register with his brain at first, but when it does he curses.

The Bounty was flying over the city, weaving back and forth wildly without any rhyme or reason to it.

"Uh, Jay, I'm fairly certain that _is_ the Bounty!" Kai yells before turning and running out of the store.

The master of lightning is on his heels in seconds as he begins to make a B-line for the ship.

"What d'you think happened?" Jay asks once their relatively even. "Did someone attack the ship?"

"I can't imagine any other reason this would happen." Kai answers, before he begins to quickly scale the side of a building. He can hear the whispers starting already, his fans recognizing his amazing moves, and he feels himself smile at the thought. He goes a little bit overboard, showing off by throwing in pointless flips he knows that other ninja would all have trouble with.

He was the best free runner, after all, out of their group. Zane had stealth, Cole had strength, Jay had speed, but Kai, he had his agility. He'd be damned if he let anyone, even his sister, take that from him.

Once they were running on the rooftops (with a crowd of his adoring fans trying to follow them on the streets below), he begins to look for any route that was not only in the ship's veering path, but would also take them up high enough to actually get on the ship.

"This way!" He decides on the high rise not too far from them. If the ship didn't make any drastic turns, then it'd be their best bet.

They reach the top of the high rise just as the ship nears, Kai doesn't hesitate to jump, and as he rises out of his landing roll, he turns to see Jay still on the high rise as the ship starts to turn away. While Kai's first thought is that the other hesitated, he seems to be looking at something below.

"Jay!" Kai calls out, startling the other, who seems to panic when he notices how far the ship is from the building now. "Use your airjiztu, stupid!"

"I knew that!" Jay huffs, quickly taking off and landing on the ship next to the red ninja. "And don't call me stupid."

Before he can answer, the ship turns violently to the left, throwing both ninja off balance, causing them fall into the railing.

The two share a worried look before they quickly right themselves and head further into the ship. They stealthily make their way further in (like a game of ninja leap frog, Jay notes, because one of them will move forward and then the other), until they find Wu calmly drinking tea in the dining room.

"Sensei, what's going on?" Kai asks urgently. "Where's the enemy?"

"Enemy?" Wu asks. "Are we being attacked?"

"The ship is swaying like its being piloted by a drunken pirate!" Jay exclaims. "How can you not know what's going on?!"

"Oh, that." Sensei Wu takes another, long sip of his tea. "I believe that is Echo's doing."

"Echo?" Jay sounds confused, then snorts. "Uh, I made _sure_ he knew how to pilot the ship before we left, though."

"He left some time ago." Another sip of tea. "I believe he left his little friend in charge until he returned."

"Little friend…?" Jay thinks for a moment before realization, then horror, takes over his features. "TAI-D? The cleaning robot? The cleaning robot is piloting the ship?!"

With that the master of lightning spins on heel and runs out of the dining room like a bat out of hell, to the bridge no doubt. Kai, meanwhile, turns to their sensei and asks.

"Why didn't you stop him… it? Whatever. Why didn't you do anything?"

"We were not in danger." Is all the sensei says on the matter, as he takes several sips of his tea, until his cup is empty, and then proceeds to pour himself another glass.

Sometimes Kai wonders if it was possible to be addicted to tea...

He can feel the ship evening out and slowing down, so Jay must have stopped the mechanical menace, and just in time, as Lloyd and Echo appear, looking just as worried as Kai had been when he'd first seen the Bounty veering back and forth.

"False alarm." He assures them. "Although I don't think we should trust Echo to watch the ship anymore."

The nindroid in question gives him this look, like he's just kicked a puppy (or like he _is_ the puppy Kai just kicked) and sadly says.

"I am sorry my actions have caused you all trouble."

Lloyd sighs, shakes his head, and moves to leave.

"I'm going to go meditate."

"Lloyd, wait!" Kai calls. "Where's Nya?"

"I don't know." Lloyd huffs. "Echo can tell you what happened, he was there."

"I can." The nindroid eagerly agrees.

Lloyd leaves without another word, and Kai turns to the bronze nindroid, who begins to recount the events leading up to their current situation.

* * *

"Well, that's the last building." Cole sighs. "No medicine woman, no cure, now what?"

"I did come up with a backup plan in case we could not find them. But there is no guarantee that it will work… and if it does not, there is no way to know for sure what will happen."

"What is it?"

"A placebo."

"A… are you sure that'd even work?"

"Jay claimed that belief played a significant role in the power of the wishes. While it might not fix everything…"

"It could fix at least a few things?"

"Yes. But we cannot let any of the other's know it is not real."

"What? Why not?"

"Because the belief applies to both the djinn and the victim. If we really want to find out what is real and what is not, the others cannot know. They have to believe the cure is real."

"Oh… and, uh, what about me?" Cole gives a sad little chuckle. "I mean, I know it won't be real, so if I'm affected by a wish, then…"

"Cole." Zane stops and turns to face his friend, giving him a serious look. "The answer is simple."

"It is?"

"Yes." Zane turns to continue walking. "Do not let your desires control you, and believe in yourself."

"That's it?"

"Does there need to be any more?"

Cole doesn't answer. The silence settles over them until Zane suddenly moves away and heads down a nearby alley.

"Uh, Zane? Where are you going?"

"I saw something… ah, I thought so." The titanium nindroid comes back holding what looks like… a normal book.

"Ok. It's a book. Why'd you decide to grab it?"

"It is Jay's." Zane says simply, as if it were obvious.

"And how can you tell?"

"This dent here in the spine." He moves the book to show Cole. "I once startled him while he was writing in it, and the book ended up getting dented when he dropped it."

"I'm surprised you knew it well enough to recognize it from the corner of your eye, while it was hidden in the shadows of some alley." Zane glance's away from the other, a rather guilty look crossing his face. "Uh, is there _another_ reason you know it so well?"

The master of ice sighs.

"I… may have read its contents without Jay's knowledge or consent." He looks down at the cover, a pensive look crossing his face.

"Wow, I'm actually kind of shocked." Cole raises his eyebrows at the other. "I never knew you had it in you… so what's in it?"

"Runes."

"…what?" Cole had expected Zane to tell him that, while what he did was bad, that showing or telling another about what Jay had written would be even worse.

"It is filled with runes." Zane flips it open to a random page filled with odd symbols. "I will admit, I at first was just curious where Jay had learned how to write in them… but when he told me I was seeing things and claimed not to have seen any of the runes I showed him, my curiosity got the better of me."

"Oh, I get it." Cole laughs. "He didn't want any of us to read it, so he decided to use a code. Only he didn't think about the fact that you have an interest in linguistics, and he got so flustered when you asked that he lied about the whole thing! Classic jay."

"Yes… that could be one reason." Zane nods. "I suppose he might want to keep what he wrote secret from even his parents."

"Why would he-?" Cole cuts himself off when he glances up, only to see the Bounty high above them in the sky. "What?"

"I think it would be best if we returned to the ship for now."

"Yeah."

End chapter three


	5. Chapter Four

Jay huffs, agitation itching under his skin as the memory replays in his head.

That brief moment, that little glimpse, of her, of him, of _them_. Together, laughing, alone.

Nya and Ronin.

Ronin and Nya.

He bites his lip, sparks of pain dancing in his mind, he lets go.

The others are talking. Going over everything that happened. He needs to focus.

_Liar._

Sensei Wu was saying something.

_She said she loved_ _**me** _ _._

Echo is saying something. Apologizing. Zane's giving him an understanding look, putting a hand on his shoulder, saying something in response.

_When I see him again, I'll make sure Ronin knows perfectly well that she chose_ _**me** _ _and that he needs to back off._

Echo is pulling something up on the screen at Wu's request. A familiar looking shop.

"A tea shop?" He asks, only vaguely aware of what's going on. "How, exactly, is that going to help?"

They give him a strange look and embarrassment quickly builds as he realizes that they must have already explained that. The agitation bubbles, crackling like electricity, and he snaps.

"Would you stop looking at me like that!?"

"Dude, calm down." Cole says, taken aback.

_Liars. He's surrounded by liars._

He forces himself to laugh, false as it sounds, and gives them an apologetic smile.

"S-sorry… I just…" _I hate you. I hate you. I hate you._ "I didn't really get much sleep last night, so I'm a little on edge."

Crackle. Snap. Buzzing agitation under his skin, in his mind, circling the same wires without an outlet.

"Jay." Zane says evenly. "Perhaps it would be best if you went and rested. You do not look well, and there is still some time before we arrive."

"Yeah," Cole agrees, giving Jay a worried look. "I'll wake you when we get there."

The thought of laying down, of sitting in silence with only his thoughts to keep him company, fills him with dread.

"N-no!" Wait, that sounded wrong. "I mean, ah, that'd just mess up my sleeping patterns, you know? I'll be fine."

They look ready to push it, then Nya and Ronin walk in, the criminal letting the door bang against the wall and cause a ruckus.

It takes every ounce of self-restraint he has not to jump up from his seat, but stand up calmly and (relatively) calmly ask.

"Nya, what were you doing with Ronin? I thought you were going to search the city with Lloyd."

She rolls her eyes, annoyance clear in her expression.

"We were just hanging out." She gives Echo an annoyed look as well. "Thanks to a certain someone, our search was pretty much over, anyway."

The bronze nindroid looks down at his feet, chastised.

"I do not think," Zane says clearly, a look of cold anger on his face. "that you have any right to point fingers after you attacked a civilian."

"I'm not pointing fingers!" She glares at the titanium nindroid for a moment before turning a sweet smile on the blue ninja. "Jay, back me up here."

"Zane…" Without even a moment of hesitation he turns to the master of ice. "She kind of has a point."

"I don't think you should get involved in this, Jay." Cole says, stepping forward and putting a hand on the other's shoulder. "You aren't exactly a neutral party."

"Uh, if you hadn't noticed, Zane isn't a neutral party, either."

"That's different."

"Different how?!" Jay demands with a scoff. "Because he's a nindroid? I don't think so."

"Because Zane isn't-"

" _Cole_." Zane says forcefully, trying to stop the master of earth midsentence, to no avail.

"-being manipulated by some stupid wish!"

"What?" Jay's taken off guard by the reply. "What are you talking about?"

"You don't love Nya." He grabs the other's shoulders, giving him a look full of determination. "This is all the effects of some wish."

"You're crazy." Jay laughs, but it's completely devoid of any humor. "You can't wish for love, Cole."

"You're obsessed with her, Jay." Pity fills his gaze. "Think about it. You hardly talk about anything but her, you haven't invented anything for months unless she's somehow involved, and even then she's the one in charge of everything…"

Snap.

_Break him._

"Y-you're… You're just jealous!" He pushes the other away from him (which he can only do because Cole wasn't using his super strength to hold him in place), and gives the other the most poisonous glare he can muster. "You never got over the fact that she didn't choose you!"

"Jay…" His gaze is sad… sad, but understanding, and the agitation buzzing under Jay's skin is now crackling in the air around him. Cole's eyes widen in surprise. "J-Jay, calm down. I don't like Nya that way, I _never_ did. That obsession you're feeling? I felt it, then, too."

" _Shut_ _up_!" crackle, buzz, pop. The lights go out, the ship lets out a groan, shutters, his stomach knots as he feels them start to go down. To _plummet_.

_Oh, god, I did this. I shorted out the wires in the ship._

Panic, fear, regret, regret, regret… He can't breathe anymore, everyone's moving, shouting, he can't hear it over the buzzing in his head.

He can't breathe, blackness encroaches on his vision, and he feels weak.

* * *

"Echo, I need your help!"

"o-of course, brother!"

"Go to the left engine and keep it running no matter what!"

"I will do my best!"

At his brother's behest, Echo takes off. He knows what the other nindroid expects of him, and he is more than happy to be useful once more, to prove that he can be relied on to protect those who cannot protect themselves.

He just hopes that his power will be enough to keep the engine running long enough to get them away from the city.

* * *

Ronin can hear the ninja of fire scoff as he jumps ship and glides away to a nearby building. No doubt he thought Ronin a self-serving coward.

Well, it's not like that's entirely wrong…

With his usual whistle, he summons REX and quickly climbs aboard. He directs it to fly over the Bounty, then lowers the hook, along with himself, and attaches it to the railing on the bow of the ship. Another whistle and REX is pulling up on the ship, helping to delay the crash, since his girl wasn't powerful enough to carry the whole thing on her own.

He winces as he thinks of the strain this would put on REX's engine.

"Sorry, girl." He says softly. "And you just got new engines, too."

Ronin watches the city go by underneath them, estimating their landing, and is satisfied to note that, if they kept this up, they'd clear the city by a mile or two. Climbing the rope, he gets into the driver's seat and buckles up. This was going to be a bumpy landing, and he didn't fancy being thrown around.

* * *

It's the cacophony of clattering metal and rustling paper that brings Jay back to his senses. He jolts up, hitting his head on something, and curses. The whole place around him is shuddering, rumbling, and he feels dizzy.

Glancing around him, he's sure of one thing. He's in his 'laboratory' (really just the room the others' had restricted his inventing to, since he had a bad habit of covering every surface available when inventing). The lose bits of metal, half-finished inventions, and blueprint paper were scattered everywhere.

Carefully moving out from under the desk (just when had he gotten under it?), he looks around.

He'd barely spent any time in here anymore.

Picking up a random piece of paper, he looks over the blueprints he'd carefully drawn onto it. He remembered being so excited about it, but he'd been interrupted by… by Nya… before he could write any information down, and now he didn't even remember what it was meant to do.

_**You're obsessed.** _

_Shut up…_

He has to push aside a machine that had been broken by the fall. He remembered this one, it was meant to stop a person from having nightmares. He'd stopped working on it when Nya had jokingly said it was ridiculous to think it'd ever work.

_**You never loved her.** _

_Stop it…_

There's a stupid poem he wrote on the back of one of the blueprints. He'd wrote that after Nya had told him he didn't have to pretend to be anyone else.

_**You're obsessed.** _

_I just wanted to be normal…_

It was violently scribbled out. He'd done it the first time she'd told him he could use some work, and asked him to change.

_**This is all due to some wish.** _

_I wanted them to be proud of me…_

His parents were so happy when he'd brought her home. It was all they'd talk about whenever they called. He'd finally found a nice girl, just like they always said he would, and now he'd be able to have a perfect, happy life like they did.

_**You're obsessed.** _

_I can't do this anymore._

**Then let me ease your burden.**

End chapter four


	6. Chapter Five

"Thanks for the help, Ronin." Nya says as soon as the criminal walks on deck.

"Yeah, well, looks like you lot owe me yet again." Ronin smirks.

"Would you just shut up about that?" Kai growls. "I bet you were only thinking of yourself, anyway."

"So what if I was?" Ronin shrugs. "You still owe me."

Kai looks like he's going to argue, but Lloyd puts a hand on the red ninja's shoulder and says.

"We don't have time for this right now." He turns to Cole and Zane. "Right now we need to talk about what happened before with Jay."

Cole guiltily looks over to Zane, who sighs and begins to explain.

"I hypothesized that Jay's feelings for Nya were the effects of a wish. I was not certain if it was true, so I decided it would be for the best that I kept it to myself for now." He gives Cole a disappointed look. "Cole noticed that I was not entirely forthcoming, though, and so I told him. I had thought since we agreed it was best not to unduly worry everyone that he would not say anything until after we had found the cure."

"I-… I'm sorry." Cole sighs. "I just-, he's my best friend. I couldn't just stand by and do nothing."

"Yes, well, you mentioned having to do some 'major damage control' before. I suppose that starts now."

"Yeah… you're right…" Cole looks around. "Uh, does anybody know where he is, by the way?"

No one knew, unsurprisingly. They'd all been distracted by the imminent threat, by trying to keep the city and who knows how many people, from being crushed under the weight of their ship.

"Well, he's probably somewhere on the ship." Cole shrugs. "Shouldn't be that hard to find him."

Cole had been right; finding Jay was easy. He was just in his self-proclaimed laboratory. Getting him to open the door, or respond to them, was the hard part.

"Jay! Please, man, just say something!"

"Cole, it has been an hour." Zane puts a placating hand on the other's shoulder. "I do not think he intends to respond."

"I… I'm going in there." Cole doesn't wait for the nindroid to respond before he phases through the door.

Zane waits a moment, thinking that perhaps the ghost would open the door for him, but the door doesn't open, and eventually he hears their muted voices through the door.

"Jay? Hey, uh, are you ok?"

There's a low mumble, Jay's normally boisterous voice too quiet to make out what he's saying.

"I- uh, are… are you sure?"

A laugh, unmistakably Jay's, before he says.

"Yeah, Cole, I'm sure."

"Oh… Why didn't you answer before?"

Back to the mumbling.

"Well, uh, if you need anything, we're all here for you."

And with that Cole steps back outside (using the door like a normal person, instead of going through it like a ghost), and gives Zane a bemused look.

"What did he say?" The master of ice asks, curious about their exchange.

"He said I was right… and that he was fine. That he was just thinking about things, so lost in thought, apparently, that he didn't even hear us out here."

"And do you believe that?"

"No." Cole sighs. "Not a word of it… but he wasn't acting like he was before so…"

"You think we should give him some space for now?"

"Yeah."

"I suppose that there is nothing we can do if he is not willing to talk to us." The two are quiet for a minute. "We should probably go help the others in examining the extent of the damage to the ship."

* * *

"Hey, Kai?" Nya asks tentatively.

"Yeah, sis?" Kai turns away from the charred ceiling he'd been examining. They'd already swept up the glass, but the broken bulb's base was still in the socket (or whatever it was called, Kai didn't really care about the semantics), and he had yet to think of a good way to remove it.

"Do you think..." She hesitates. "Do you think there's a chance Jay still wants to be with me?"

"Um…" Kai rubs the back of his neck.

"I mean, after all this time, it's possible he could have developed feelings for me outside of what the wish made him feel, right?"

"Nya."

"I mean, after I finally decided to be with him, this happens?" She huffs. "Don't I get a say in _anything_?"

Kai struggles to find the right words to say. He still dislikes the thought of his little sister dating, even if Jay was an alright guy, but after everything that had happened… What was he supposed to say?

"Do either of you need assistance?" Kai couldn't be more relieved at the bronze nindroid's timely appearance.

"Yeah, actually." The master of fire says, gesturing to the ceiling. "Any ideas on how to get that out without hurting ourselves?"

"Potatoes." Echo says almost immediately.

"Potatoes…?" Kai questioned, raising one eyebrow at the other.

"Yes."

"Alright, care to explain? Because honestly I'm about ready to go tell Zane his little brother needs to be checked for viruses or his software is out of date or something."

"You use a potato to remove it."

"Alright, then, Zane it is."

"Was my answer not clear enough?"

"About as clear as mud."

"But mud is not clear."

"That's the point."

"That does not make any sense. Unless… you have seen clear mud?"

Kai sighs. The nindroid was following him now. Between his sister's questions and the nindroid's, he wasn't sure whose were worse.

* * *

It wasn't until dinner time that Jay made an appearance. Unfortunately Ronin had decided to join them for the little affair, but he was currently in the kitchen, annoying the two nindroids while Zane taught his brother to cook.

"Jay!" Nya is the first to approach him, and he freezes as she walks up. Cole curses, wishing the girl would just leave things be for now.

"Oh, uh, hey, Nya…"

She stops in front of him and gives him a sad look.

"You don't hate me, do you?" She asks.

"What? Why would I hate you?"

"Well, because Kai and I are part djinn… and because of that awful wish."

"I don't hate you."

Ok, this is going well so far, so if she just leaves it at that-

"I still love you." Great.

"O-oh?"

"Of course." She grabs his hand, gives him a little smile and bats her eyes. "We can still be together."

"I, uh, I don't know what to say." Jay gives a little nervous laugh, carefully taking his hand out of Nya's hold. She looks a tad put off by that, but goes on anyway.

"You only need to say yes, Jay."

"H-how about 'I'm gay?'"

Oh, was that Kai choking on his drink?

"What?"

"I'm gay." He repeats, looking at everything but the girl before him.

"Hello, Jay." Echo says cheerfully from the doorway. "I am glad to hear you are so happy."

"He didn't mean he was happy." Ronin says, trying to contain his chuckles as he throws an arm around the nindroid's shoulders. "What he means is that he likes to plow dudes."

"Plow…?" The nindroid looks confused. "Is Jay a farmer?"

"Well- _ohf_!" The criminal is cut off by Zane appearing and elbowing him hard in the stomach.

"Do not listen to him, Echo, he does not know what he's talking about."

"Oh. So Jay is happy?"

"Gay is another way of saying homosexual."

"I will file that away for future reference."

"What…" Ronin wheezed from the floor. "What happened to protecting those who can't fight back?"

"You are a very capable fighter and I do not protect criminals." Echo cheerfully tells him. "Also, it is 'protect those who cannot protect themselves.'"

Cole glances away from the trio, worried about Jay's reaction, only to notice that the blue ninja was gone once more. He couldn't help the disappointment that welled up, along with the annoyance at Ronin's crass behavior. On the other hand, there's Nya, who was still standing where she'd been before, apparently shell shocked at the master of lightning's confession.

Well… Cole honestly hadn't expected this turn of events, either, so he couldn't blame her for being so shocked that her (now ex) boyfriend is gay.

_I better go make sure he's alright._

Cole's stomach gave an unhappy rumble, as the smells wafting out of the kitchen were promising a truly delicious meal.

 _Later._ He promised it. _Besides, if Echo turns out to be as good a chef as Zane, then there'll be even more good food to look forward to later on._

Wait, what was he doing? Oh, right, Jay.

Man, he needed to stop letting food distract him so much…

End chapter five


	7. Chapter Six

"Hey, Jay?" Cole knocks on the door lightly. "Can I come in?"

No reply.

"I'm coming in."

It's the second time today that he's fazed through the door to Jay's laboratory. Only, instead of finding the master of lightning sitting at the desk, tapping out an unknown rhythm with his fingers as he stared pensively at the wall, he finds the other _under_ the desk, legs pulled up close to his chest with his face buried in his knees.

Cole doesn't say anything at first, he just sits down nearby and waits.

As his stomach growls for the third time in so many minutes, Jay moves just enough to peek out at him. Taking that as his que to start, Cole gives the other an encouraging smile and says.

"Hey." Which is honestly the best he could think of at the moment.

Jay sighs, burying his face back in his knees, then mumbles something.

"What was that?"

"I _said_ hay is for horses." Cole doesn't respond at first, so Jay glances up at him curiously. "What?"

"I just wasn't expecting you to start making jokes…" He'd expected one of Jay's classic freak outs, especially about something that was so personal.

"This… well, no, I can't say I ever imagined telling you all." He picks at a loose thread in his pants. "So… how'd the others take it?"

"Fine." He didn't actually know that, especially considering Kai and Nya's reactions, but he wasn't going to tell Jay that. He'd just go talk to them before Jay and hopefully sort out this whole mess. "They were more curious about whether Ronin did anything to dinner or not."

Jay doesn't say anything to that. Cole doesn't know if the other believes him or not, so he just moves onto another subject.

"You know, my dad is friends with a few gay guys." Jay glances over at him, but the look is guarded, so Cole tries to choose his words carefully. "I'm not really sure who is or isn't, though, because aside from my dad mentioning it once, they don't really act any differently than any other guys."

"…Why'd your dad mention it to you?"

"I guess he thought it was weird that I hadn't had a girlfriend in all that time, so he pulled me aside and told me that." Cole shrugs, chuckling at the memory. "When I told him I just hadn't found anyone I was interested in, he seemed happy, because the _truly_ _great_ stars focus on their work or something."

Jay glances away, his gaze unfocused, and doesn't say anything. In fact, his entire face is devoid of emotion, and it's kind of creeping Cole out. Jay was always a high intensity person. For him to be so still, so unusually quiet…

"You're lucky." Jay says quietly.

"Huh?"

"…Never mind." Jay shakes his head, his gaze settled on one of the papers scattered all over the floor. Unlike the others, this one was torn in two. It was kind of strange, since he'd never seen Jay do that. He'd had a bad habit of saving every failure in case he thought of a solution to the problem later on.

A thought struck Cole just then.

"Uh… I know it's none of my business, but, Jay, have you even told your parents yet?" They hadn't seemed shocked that their gay son had brought home a girl, so the answer was probably no, but he had to ask.

A slow, owlish blink, and then Jay is shuffling forward, out from under the desk, and makes his way to the door with a simple.

"Dinner is ready."

"R-right." He probably shouldn't push it. Besides, at the mention of food his stomach gave out a huge rumble.

* * *

Zane was glad that Jay decided to come to dinner after all, even if he was alarmingly quiet. He'd given Cole a questioning look, but the black ninja just shook his head.

"I helped cook tonight." Echo proudly told the master of lightning.

"Oh?"

"Yes." He beamed. "Did you know that when a recipe calls for a cup of something it does not mean for you to use one of the cups that you drink from? There are 'special cups' that are solely for measuring things."

"That sounds fascinating."

"It is! There are also special spoons for measuring, as well. They come in tables and teas."

"Mhm."

"I have not found anything stating what measurements a tea pot would be, though."

"Yeah?"

Jay didn't appear to be listening at all (although Zane noted several things he'd have to correct his brother on, later). Zane glanced at the other members of the table.

Nya had started up a conversation with Ronin. Kai was caught between glowering at the criminal and talking with Lloyd, while Lloyd was equally distracted glancing over at Jay as well. Cole was focused almost entirely on his food, only sparing a few moment to glance over at the master of lightning. Sensei Wu had already finished eating and had started his third cup of tea. And then there was Echo, who was chatting happily at Jay, who didn't seem to be paying much attention to anything around him.

Zane, himself, did not quite understand the significance of gender specific attraction. Kai had seemed a bit perturbed after Cole had left, although he did not say anything about it, and once she had recovered from her shock, Nya had begun to mutter about unfairness and choices. He had wanted to ask about it, but he did not want to appear ignorant in front of his brother, and he did not trust Ronin to keep quiet.

"Hey, guys." Lloyd announces, suddenly. "We've been grounded for almost a day now. If we ever want to get that cure anytime soon, I think a couple of us should go ahead while the rest stay behind to fix the ship."

"Sound like a plan." Cole agrees. "But how should we decide?"

"Jay and Nya are obviously the best candidates to stay and fix the ship, so I think they should decide who they think would be the best help." Lloyd glances at the two, before wincing and says. "Uh, I mean, so long as you two don't have any problems working together."

"It's a pretty big ship." Ronin says lazily. "Even if they did have a problem, they'd just be able to work on opposite sides, right?"

"It's fine." Jay says, apparently unaffected by the criminal's behavior. "Right, Nya?"

"Y-yeah." She says unconvincingly.

"Ok…" Lloyd looks tired, aged beyond his years. "So do you need anyone's help?"

"Zane's pretty good with this stuff." Jay suggests.

"But, Zane knows the most about the cure and all of this stuff." Cole says.

"My brother also knows about it." Zane suggest.

"I do." Echo helpfully adds.

"Er..." an expression of trepidation appears on not only Cole's face, but Lloyd's and Kai's as well.

" _Actually_ ," Jay says, a playful expression appearing on his face. "It might be fun to have Echo be my assistant. He's like an adorable, clueless Zane!"

"I suppose I do not have any clues to help with this matter." Echo nods.

It was irrational for Zane to feel jealous about Jay choosing Echo over him even though he was the clearly superior choice (Echo still had much to learn after all). Besides, Jay made it clear he did not pick him because he thought the other would be helpful, but because he thought the other would be amusing to be around.

_Perhaps that is why I am unhappy._

Shaking himself free of his thoughts, he turns to Lloyd just as the other announces.

"So it's decided then. Nya, Jay, _Ronin_ , and Echo will all stay here while the rest of us go ahead to Mistako's tea shop." His distaste for the criminal was clear in his tone. Zane must have missed him making another inane quip meant only to annoy.

"I am going to go to bed so that I will be fully recharged in the morning." Echo announces.

"…I hope he doesn't expect me to get up any earlier than usual." Jay says after the bronze nindroid has left.

"He has the right idea." Lloyd says. "Echo, I mean. We should all get some rest, since tomorrow's probably going to be a long day for all of us."

"Yeah, well, I've got dish duty, so maybe once that's done." Jay shrugs.

Zane hesitates momentarily when he remembered that, due to his infatuation, Jay had originally pushed to share his dish duty with Nya. But Jay hadn't seemed at all worried or apprehensive, though, so perhaps the titanium nindroid was just over thinking things.

He needed to prepare for the journey tomorrow.

"Well, it's been fun, but I think I'll be taking off-"

"Before you go." Jay cuts off Ronin's departing words to Nya (so obviously directed solely at Nya). "I was thinking, since you stayed for dinner, why don't you help with the dishes?"

"What? I save your asses and now you're going to force me to help clean up?"

"If you think about it," Jay says casually, leaning against the kitchen table. "You admitted that Echo didn't owe you anything, yet you still demanded payment from us. That would put _you_ in debt to _us_."

"…Fine. I'll give you that." The criminal frowns, crossing his arms. "But I _did_ just save your asses. We're even now."

"And we fed you dinner, so you owe us." Jay raised an eyebrow at the other, challenging him.

"You know, none of the articles about you ever said anything about doing your _dandiest_ to slack off on chores."

"I'm not. Nya can have the night off." Jay shrugs. "And I'm surprised that you actually read those teen mags."

"Well, I'm flattered that you apparently want to spend some _quality_ time with me, but I'll tell you right now I'm not interested."

"Wow, that's an image I'm not going to get out of my head for a while. Guess I should just forget about eating anytime soon." Jay shakes his head. "No, I just wanted to talk to you, man to man."

"Over dishes?" Nya can't help but pipe up. "Listen, Jay, I don't know what you're trying to accomplish here, but I don't need you getting me out of my responsibilities."

He stares at her for a long moment, chuckles, then turns back to Ronin.

"I guess we'll talk later." He starts heading for the door. "Oh, and you should know she purposely does a terrible job of washing so that you'll have to do it yourself!"

"…He seriously expects me to help?" Ronin scoffs.

"You don't have to help. I can always just use my powers to speed things up." Nya shrugs. "It's no big deal, really, you're a guest after all."

"Well, at least someone around here is sensible."

End chapter six


	8. Chapter Seven

"I can't believe you flaked on helping me with the dishes yesterday!"

"What? Ronin didn't help you?"

"Ronin was a _guest_ , Jay."

"So then you just used your powers and finished it in seconds instead of the hour it takes us by hand."

"W-, T-that isn't the point!"

The table was silent, everyone uncertain how the conversation would turn out. Jay had never left Nya in want of anything before, so for him to suddenly leave her to do the dishes on her own was odd.

"If you felt so strongly about it, then why didn't you come get me?" Jay gives her an uncaring look, which just seemed so odd, after seeing him look at her with such reverence for so long.

"I…" Nya stutters, and in the wake of her hesitation, Jay turns back to his food, ending the conversation.

The master of water's face goes red with anger, and suddenly all the drinks become mini waterjets.

"Hey, watch it!" Cole yells, fear apparent as he's forced to flee the vicinity of the now soaking wet table.

"Sorry." Nya winces, giving the master of earth an apologetic look.

"I guess I'll be eating in the kitchen…" He sighs. "At least I grabbed my plate."

"Your first job of the day," Sensei Wu decides. "Will be to clean this up. Then you can work on the rest of the ship."

"What?" Jay whines. "But Echo and I are innocent!"

"I do not care who's 'fault' this is, you will all help to clean it up."

"Of course, sir." Echo says, already scurrying into the kitchen to grab the paper towels.

Somehow, without their notice, TAI-D had made his way into the room and was already drying the floors.

And so Kai, Lloyd, Cole, Zane, and Sensei Wu all started their journey off kilter, wondering just how things would go between the exes while they were gone.

* * *

"Alright," Jay exclaims around midday, standing up to stretch. "We've managed to get a lot done so far. I think we deserve a break."

"Yes, it would be unwise to skip a meal." Echo sets down the tool box he'd been carrying. "Would it be alright if I made something? After helping my brother, I would like to try and improve my skills even further."

"Eh… why don't we both work on it?" Jay suggests, remembering Echo's rather perilous grasp on measurements. "Besides, Ma always said food tastes best when it's made with others."

"I thought that love was supposed to be what made food taste good."

"Hm? Where'd you hear that?"

"I looked it up online. But when I looked up love, I only found dating sites, and those only seemed to be advertising people." Echo pauses, then looks at Jay with horror. "Unless _that_ is what love stands for?!"

"Wha-, no! _No!"_ Jay can't help but break out laughing at the nindroid's assumption. "Love just means you put your heart into it."

"My heart?" Echo opens up his chassis and looks down at all the gears and such, along with his power source. Jay couldn't help but find it interesting that it was similar to Zane's, only a golden amber color instead of an ice blue. "I do not think that is a wise idea."

"Let me rephrase that…" Stifling the last of his chuckles, Jay tries to think of the most straightforward way to put it, so that the nindroid wouldn't misunderstand. "It means that you put a lot of care and attention into making sure it turns out just right, usually because you care a lot about the people you're giving it to, but sometimes it's because you're so passionate about cooking."

"I see… Then brother must make all of his food with a lot of love."

"Does he?"

"Yes, he does. He knew every measurement without having to consult the cookbook, and was able to measure everything exactly, down to the gram."

_Isn't that just because he's a nindroid?_

Jay doesn't say that to the other, because for all he knows, Zane really does put that much care into his food. It'd explain why it was always better than whatever Jay made, anyway, despite his years helping his Ma in the kitchen and cooking as a hobby.

"Alright then. So what do you feel like making?"

The nindroid thought long and hard about the question, before seeming to deflate.

"I cannot decide."

"Okay." Jay chuckles. "Why don't we make some cucumber sandwiches?"

"Alright. How do we make them?"

"It's pretty simple, actually."

* * *

Echo was enjoying spending time with Jay. The other was very knowledgeable about cooking, just like his brother. With Jay's help he'd be able to learn a lot and impress his brother for sure!

But, first, he had to make sure to put a lot of love into cutting these cucumbers.

"You don't have to be so careful about it, you know." Jay says with a little snort while cutting up some cucumbers of his own. "We're just going to eat it in the end."

"I want to add as much love as possible, just like my brother."

"Alright, then." Jay shakes his head, before turning back to his cutting board and freezing. "W-when?"

"Is there a problem?" Echo asks, curious about Jay's odd tone. The blue ninja is holding his right hand up, blood was running down his palm. "That is not good!"

He rushes over and ushers the other to the sink.

"Clean off your wound and I will find some bandages."

"They're on top of the fridge." He quickly goes over and gets the bag while Jay rinses the wound off. He returns and dumps it all out on the counter. "They're just in the metal box, buddy."

"Alright!" He holds up a fresh bandage triumphantly. "Give me your hand."

Jay holds it out and Echo pauses.

"…Where is the wound?" Had Jay somehow washed it away? But he'd never heard of that before…

"It's hard to see without all the blood, but its here." Jay indicates a little pink line on his finger.

"That is what caused all that blood to come out?"

"It really wasn't that much." Echo carefully applies the bandage, then looks Jay's hand over. Was it alright to only bandage one finger? What if the other ones got jealous? "Uh, Echo?"

"Yes, Jay?"

"Why are you grabbing more bandages?"

"For your other fingers." He stops himself from saying 'obviously', because his brother had explained to him that something that may seem obvious to some were not to others, and he should not feel bad because of that.

"My other fingers are fine, though, so they don't need any bandages."

Echo pauses, looking down at the bandage he'd already managed to open, and then at Jay's hands.

"Then one for the same finger on your other hand, so it does not feel left out."

"S-Sure…" He doesn't understand why Jay starts to shake with withheld laughter, but he decides to focus on making sure the ends of the bandage line up perfectly instead.

The doors to the kitchen bang open and Nya storms in, her gaze quickly settling on Jay, and she storms up to them.

"What'd you say to him?!"

"What are you talking about?" Jay appears to be confused.

"Ronin just took off, looking freaked out, and he refused to tell me why." She gets closer to Jay, until she is closer than Echo thinks would be comfortable. "Now _tell_ _me_ what you told him."

"I haven't said anything to Ronin all day." Jay says slowly. "I've been with Echo the entire time, right?"

"Yes, we have not separated for any significant length of time since breakfast."

"O-oh…" She steps back and gives Jay a bashful smile and bats her lashes. "I guess I was wrong, then."

"Yeah, now, if you'll excuse us." Jay turns back to the cutting board, ignoring Nya's shocked, then remorseful expression before she hurries out of the kitchen.

Echo isn't sure how to interpret that series of events, so he just follows Jay's example and goes back to cutting up the cucumbers.

* * *

It's late evening when they finally make it to the shop, the orange and pink of the sky already giving way to black. A quick glance at the hours and Lloyd can only sigh in relief that it'll be open for at least another half hour.

They all pile into the small shop, which is honestly a little cramped for the five of them, and let Sensei Wu, who has the most experience with the owner, up front near the register.

"Hello."

"What do you want?"

She didn't seem to be a very pleasant woman…

"Yes, well, we were hoping you could help us with something."

"Spit it out already!"

Obviously angered by the woman's attitude, Kai pushes to the front and leans across the counter.

"We're paying customers, lady, maybe try being a little less rude." He glares at her when she only ' _humph'_ d in response. "We heard that there's a cure for people who have djinn powers. Do you know it, or should we take our money elsewhere?"

She eyes him, before heading into the back without a word. Kai looks ready to start yelling back at her, when Sensei Wu speaks up.

"I believe we have found it."

The woman comes back with a small canister in hand.

"This is all I have." She sets the can down. "If you want it to be truly effective, you'll have to drink it daily."

"Whaaat?" Kai groans. "Seriously?"

"Thanks." Cole counts out the proper payment. "Could you maybe tell us who your supplier for this is?"

"That'll cost extra."

"Of course it does."

"Don't give me any lip, boy, I have no reason to tell you who I buy from!"

"S-sorry, sorry, we'll pay."

* * *

"Hello, brother." Echo greets happily, even waving at the video footage.

"Hello, brother." Zane greets him in return, smiling softly. "And hello to you too, Jay, Nya."

"Wait," a voice off-screen speaks up. "Ronin isn't there?"

"He… left." Nya says hesitantly. "Urgent business."

"That is unfortunate." Zane says without a single ounce of sympathy in his tone. "But I am happy to say that we have made progress on our end."

"So you've found the cure?" Jay asks, leaning back in his chair a bit.

"Yes, a bit of it, but we are trying to find more at the moment."

"Why would you need more?" Echo asks, eyeing the tilt of Jay's chair warily.

"It appears to be a tea that must be drunken daily, and there is not enough for even one person, let alone two." Zane holds up a small canister to show them. "We know who the supplier is, so we're going to try and find them. How's the progress on the ship going?"

"Pretty well." Jay answers at the same time that Nya answers. "Not so good…"

The two look at each other for a moment, then Echo helpfully pipes up.

"Jay and I are working fifty five percent faster than estimated!"

"Yeah, well, without Ronin things on my end have kinda slowed down."

"Maybe you should join us, then?" Echo innocently asks. "If we are all working together, than I am sure we can reduce the estimated completion time by at least three days!"

"Wait, three days?" Another voice off-screen asks. "Just how long is it gonna take to fix the Bounty?"

"Barring any setbacks," Zane says to the person off-screen. "it will take a week at least."

"Well," Jay laughs a little nervously, rocking his chair back a little more. "There's a lot of wiring in the ship and I fried most of it…"

"Anyway, if you three manage to finish before we are done, I will send you our coordinates."

"Goodbye, brother!"

"Goodbye, brother."

"And goodnight, as well."

"Yes, goodnight."

The screen goes dark, Jay lets his chair fall back onto all four legs, and the three of them turn to each other.

"There is still some sunlight left." Echo glances out the nearby window, just to be certain. "Should we attempt to do some more work?"

"Why not?" Jay shrugs. "Honestly, I've kind of missed this."

"…Yeah." Nya agrees, but doesn't follow when they go. Although Echo had invited her before, and Jay had said he didn't hate her, she got the feeling that her presence wasn't a welcome one around the master of lightning anymore.

_I think I liked it better when he was obsessed with me._

End chapter seven


	9. Chapter Eight

It was late at night, the world made infinitely darker by the storm clouds covering the sky in a thick layer. REX cuts through the night, guided solely by its GPS, as Ronin could barely make out the shadowy horizon in this engulfing night.

The sky rumbles, long and loud, and Ronin cringes. He flips on the radio, getting nothing but static at first, but with a little fiddling sound begins to filter through.

{-sometimes before it gets better, the darkness gets bigger, the person you'd take a bullet for is behind the trigger-}

With a muttered curse he quickly changes the channel.

{-rget it! Now, I'll throw the first punch, 'cause I've kept my mouth shut for far too long-}

Really, wasn't there anything good on?

{-as a girl, you have set your heart on haunting me forever from the start, it's never silent-}

_Music nowadays._

Ronin scoffs, reaching out once more (with a hand that definitely wasn't shaking), and changes the channel again.

{-'ve used up all your luck. I'm holding out for karma, I'm holding out to watch you burn-}

Finally turning off the radio, Ronin sighs.

"Aw…" The criminal freezes at the laughing voice behind him rings out. "I was enjoying that."

"Does this mean I've lost?" Ronin bites out, staring determinedly ahead of him, not wanting that demon to see his reaction.

"Yes. Despite the head start I gave you, even." The demon chuckles. "But watching you struggle was so much _fun_!"

"Good to know one of us enjoyed this." Ronin tries to sound sarcastic, but the underlying fear takes out most of the bite in his words. The demon hums, leans in close enough that Ronin can feel his warm breath on his neck, and says.

"I know~! Why don't we play another game?" The demon chuckles as Ronin feels a chill go down his spine. "We can play again and again, until the despair eats away at you, until the paranoia keeps you up _all_ ~ night. Unless, that is, you'll accept my offer?"

"You'll be waiting a long time, then." Ronin steels his nerves. "Because neither of those things are ever going to happen."

"So you say." The demon finally backs off, laughing as if Ronin had made a hilarious joke. "I'll give you a much bigger head start this time. A game's no fun if it's _too_ easy, after all~."

"The ninja are going to stop you." He can't help but say. There's no reply and Ronin finally turns around, only to find empty air behind him. With a shaky breath, he turns back around and turns off REX's GPS. No doubt that was how he'd been found so quickly.

In the morning he'd stop to completely remove the thing, possibly surreptitiously attach it to some unsuspecting person's car, and then go back on the move.

He didn't need to avoid the demon forever, he'd just have to survive long enough for the ninja to do their thing.

_I just hope he doesn't get bored of our 'game' before then._

* * *

"I can't believe someone would decide to grow tea in Hiroshi's labyrinth." Cole says, pushing another branch away from his face. "Didn't you say this place was like a maze?"

"It's actually not that hard to navigate." Lloyd shrugs. "As long as you pay attention to where you're going, that is."

"Just how much farther is it?" Kai whines, batting away a palm leaf.

"I believe we are almost there." Zane carefully steps over a root that was sticking up out of the ground, forming a loop that appeared perfect for catching an unsuspecting person's foot. "As for your earlier question, Cole, they may have chosen based on the climate of the area."

"There it is!" Lloyd exclaims, pointing to the little hut in the distance.

It was dwarfed by the surrounding trees, with weeds growing unchecked around the edges, the paint fading and flaking off. There wasn't any sign of a garden nearby, which was a little odd, but maybe it was just deeper in the forest.

"Do you think anyone even lives here anymore?" Kai gives the building a critical look.

"Well, we won't know until we knock." Lloyd steps forward, raps on the door, and then steps back to wait for an answer.

They wait for a while, Lloyd tries knocking once more, another wait, than Cole suggests.

"Maybe they just aren't home?"

"So, what, do we wait here until they get back? Assuming they aren't dead, that is." Kai huffs.

"What other choice to we have?" The green ninja shrugs.

"Uh, Cole could ghost in there, open the door for us, we find the tea and get out."

"It's not locked." An unknown voice says from behind the ninja. They all turn to look at the stranger, who just appears to be a normal boy around their age. His eyes and hair were both a forest green, he was wearing shorts and a loose sleeveless shirt, and was carrying a basket under the crook of his arm. "Although I'd rather you not steal any of my stuff."

"We weren't going to steal anything." Cole assures him, giving Kai a disapproving look.

"Oh? But I thought that was what shady people like you do?" The boy adjusted the basket he was holding, before moving past the ninja to go open the door. "I mean, what's with those clothes?"

"Uh, we're _ninja_." Kai scoffs. "How have you not heard of us? We've been all over the news lately!"

"I don't really pay much attention to the media." He gives them all a once over. "And none of you really look like ninja. They're supposed to wear black."

Cole raises an eyebrow, then glances down at himself and, wait, yeah, he had a green tint now, which meant he didn't exactly look like a typical ninja anymore.

He wasn't sure if he was happy about that or not.

"Whether you believe we are ninja or not is not important." Zane interjects. "We have come here in search of a rare tea."

"You're customers?" His eyes light up. "Why didn't you say so before? Come in, come in!"

It was only as he ushered them inside and they'd begun taking off their shoes that Cole notices two things. First, there was already a pair of shoes placed neatly by the door, and second, the boy was barefoot.

What was the point of taking off your shoes when you enter if you're just going to track dirt everywhere anyway?

The inside of the hut was tidy, with drying herbs hanging from the ceiling and paintings covering most of the walls (they were almost exclusively still life, but a few of them featured the green haired boy as well).

There weren't very many rooms to this place. There was a main room, a small kitchen and dining room (where the boy had dropped off the basket he'd had), a room they didn't enter, and finally an art room, where another person was sitting in front of a canvas and painting.

"You have customers."

"Yeah just gimme a mi- wait customers?" turning away from the canvas, he quickly took in the few ninja he could see. "R-right, I'll be right there! Hiroshi, why don't you get them something to drink while they wait?"

"Alright." There's a little bit of awkward shuffling as they let the boy by and then follow him to the kitchen once more. "We have water, green tea, and ginger ale."

Only Sensei Wu took him up for the offer of a drink (Tea, obviously) but the boy gave the rest of them water anyway.

"So, uh, your dad must really like this forest if he named you after it." Cole tries to make polite conversation.

"I don't have a father." The boy, Hiroshi, says immediately.

"Oh, I-, uh, I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"Speaking of," Kai glances down the hall. "I was wondering just what your relationship with that guy is."

"He's mine."

"Hiroshi." The man sighs, stepping into the room, now wearing glasses. "How many times do I have to tell you not to say that to people? They always assume the worst."

"But you _are_ mine."

"Just like every other rock, plant, and animal here is?"

"Of course. Everything here is mine."

Shaking his head, he gives the ninja an apologetic look.

"Please, allow me to introduce us. I am Dan DeLeon." He puts a hand on the boy's head. "And this wierdo is Hiroshi's Labyrinth."

"I thought that might be the case." Wu says with a chuckle. "As active as the magic here is, it is no surprise that a forest spirit would be born."

"You know about forest spirits?" The man has a relieved look on his face. "Good, that makes this much easier."

"Wait, what's a forest spirit?" Kai asks.

"A forest spirit," Zane explains to the red ninja. "is essentially the personification of the forest it is born from. Although they are neutral beings, they have been known to be hostile to any perceived threat to their home, and have often clashed with humans who have tried to build their homes too close to, or within, the boarder of the forest."

"If that's true, then how'd you manage to build a house here?" Lloyd asks their host.

"Human's need shelter." Hiroshi huffs. "And there are no good caves for him to stay in."

"To clarify." Dan rolls his eyes. "I agreed to live here, in the forest, so long as Hiroshi stopped causing everyone who entered to be hopelessly lost."

"But they would leave otherwise." He pouts.

"Yes, and they have a bad habit of _dying_ when you do that."

"Humans are so strange. You are numerous, destructive, yet are so utterly vulnerable."

Shaking his head at the spirit's antics, Dan gives the ninja a kind smile.

"So, you're here to buy something?"

"Yes." Zane pulls out the canister of tea leafs. "We were told that you could provide us with more of this."

"Hiroshi?" Dan gives the forest a helpless look. "This is really more up your alley."

"May I?" He holds his hand out and Zane hands it over. He opens it up and dumps a bit into his palm. "Oh, this is lotus breaker."

"Lotus breaker?"

"That's what you human's decided to call it." Hiroshi shrugs. "I really hate this weed, so you can have as much as you want."

"It's a weed?" Kai asks, trepidation clear on his face.

"Why do you dislike the lotus breaker?" Zane asks the spirit.

"It messes with magic; disrupts it. If I don't keep it in check, then it'll slowly kill everything around it." He dumps the leaves in his palm back into the canister, closes it, and hands it back. "You should be careful with it."

"You're not going to charge us?" Cole can't help but ask in surprise.

"I forgot that humans like to trade for things…" Hiroshi mummers.

"Thanks, Cole." Kai elbows the ghost.

"I know!" the forest spirit claps his hands together. "I don't like keeping any lotus breaker around, but there's some that's been growing near the river I've been trying to get rid of, so while I go take care of that, you all can fix up this place."

The ninja share a look. While the place did appear to need a little TLC, it didn't seem like it'd be that much work.

"Deal." Lloyd decides, holding his hand out to shake.

Either not understanding or not caring, Hiroshi ignores the green ninja's hand and moves over to his basket. He pulls out some plants, quickly and expertly hangs them up along with the other drying herbs, and then starts to head out.

"Don't forget your shoes!" Dan calls after him.

"The river swept them away!" Hiroshi calls back.

"Seriously? That's the third pair this month."

"You're lucky he keeps those clothes you gave him." Wu tells the man, hiding his amused smile by taking a sip of his tea.

"Yeah…" He turns to them awkwardly. "Uh, well, I guess you can get started? If you need anything I'll be in my art room."

"Before you go," Zane speaks up, a thoughtful look on his face. "would Hiroshi be upset if we were to remove the weeds growing around the house?"

"As long as they aren't threatening the structure of the house, there's no reason to uproot or disturb any of the plants here." He assures them. "Anything else?"

"Where do you keep your tools and cleaning supplies?"

End chapter eight

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: For those who are curious about the songs used in this chapter, here they are in order of appearance.  
> 1\. "Miss missing you" By Fall Out Boy  
> 2\. "First Punch" By Nothing More  
> 3\. "Nearly witches" By Panic! At The Disco  
> 4\. "Karma" By Kagamine Rin (VocaCircus)  
> If any of the info here is wrong or I left something out, please feel free to tell me. ^u^  
> -Kit


	10. Chapter Nine

"Alright," Jay turns to Echo, a big smile on his face. "that's it, we're done!"

"Shall I call my brother so we can get the coordinates?"

"No reason not to." Jay shrugs and starts walking to the bridge. "Although it's a little strange they haven't called us in all this time."

"Yes. It is a little strange that, in five and a half days, they have not called us to at least give us an update." The bronze nindroid gives the other a worried look. "Do you think something might have happened?"

"I'm sure they're fine, Echo."

"You cannot know that."

"I can."

"How? Have they contacted you without my knowledge?"

"No, I just know them." Echo didn't looked convinced by Jay's words. "They have a nindroid, a ghost, a wise old sensei, and the _green_ _ninja_ with them. I doubt there's any situation they can't get out of."

"Lloyd has a very bad track record with being captured." Echo points out. "And Cole cannot touch water."

"That's… true." Jay chews on his lip a little. "There's no point in speculating. Let's just hurry up and call."

It goes to voicemail without even ringing. Ending it, he tries again, only to get voicemail yet again. Just in case, he tries yet a third time.

"I am sorry about not picking up sooner." Zane says as soon as his face appears on the screen, looking apologetic and with splatters of paint on his face.

"Geez, man, why didn't you call sooner?" Jay breathes a sigh of relief. For a second there he was actually really worried.

"Again, I apologize, we have been very busy and it did not cross my mind."

"What do you mean we haven't fixed the roof yet?!" Kai could be heard yelling in the background. "Just how much is wrong with this fucking house?!"

"Kai, let Hiroshi go!" Lloyd this time.

"I assume the Bounty has been fixed?" Zane asks, ignoring the commotion going on behind him.

"Yep, we barely beat the estimate, right Echo?"

"In total it took us six days, thirteen hours, and twenty one minutes."

"I will send you our coordinates, then." True to his word, a message appears a few seconds later.

"I don't care if the door squeaks!" Zane glances back at Kai's outburst, before turning back to the screen with a wince.

"I will talk to you later." He promises.

"Good luck with whatever you're doing." Jay stifles a laugh as the sounds of a struggle, the two voices belonging to Kai and Cole, can be heard.

"Yes… We will need it." And with that the screen goes dark.

"Why do you think they were working on a house?" Echo asks. "I thought they were trying to find some more tea."

"I have _no_ idea." Jay shrugs. "You can ask them when we arrive at… Hiroshi's labyrinth?"

Huh, he hadn't thought that there were any houses near there.

"Jay?"

"Yeah, buddy?"

"Are we going to leave now?"

"Oh, right!"

* * *

"You promised!" Hiroshi pouts.

"That was before you started making up reasons to keep us here!"

"I didn't make anything up."

"Kai, just calm down." Lloyd sighs.

"If you break something we _just_ fixed again…" Cole warns.

"That wasn't my fault!" The master of fire whirls on the ghost. "If you hadn't knocked me over, that window would've been fine."

"I tripped on a root!"

"Calm down, all of you!" Sensei Wu yells, stamping his staff down on the ground. "You are acting like petty children."

"Hiroshi, I think they've done more than enough, give them the tea so they can leave." Dan admonishes.

"Aw…" The forest spirit looks disappointed.

"I _knew_ you were just trying to keep us here!" Kai yells triumphantly.

"I don't like it when people leave…"

"I know, but you promised me you wouldn't keep people here anymore." Dan pats the forest spirit on the head a few times. "I'm sure they'll be back sooner or later."

"…Alright."

He starts to take down the dried bundles hanging up… all of them. Every single bundle that was already hanging up and what he'd hung while they were there, and began to wrap them in cloths.

"That's a lot…" Lloyd says with surprise. "I thought you said you didn't like to keep a lot of lotus breaker around?"

"I don't?" Hiroshi gives him a confused look. "This isn't a lot at all."

"At least we're getting our bang for our buck." Cole shrugs.

"Perhaps we do not have to leave so soon." Zane suggests.

"Uh, have you lost your mind?!" Kai gives the titanium nindroid an 'are you kidding me' look.

"I do not mean we have to keep working on the house." He assures the master of fire. "But the Bounty has been fixed and the others are on their way here."

"More people are coming?" Hiroshi looks up, curious.

"Zane, a minute?" Cole pulls the other aside and whispers. "I don't think it's a good idea to let the others come here. Hiroshi is nice, but he's not…"

"He is not what?"

"You need to leave." Hiroshi's voice sounded worried and he hurriedly pushes the bundles into the ninja's arms before urging them towards the door.

"Whoa, hey, what's with the sudden change of heart?" Dan asks. "I've never seen you try and force people you like to leave before."

"You too." He turns on the painter, a sad, fearful look appearing on his face. "You need to leave too, Dan."

"W-what?" The painter looked confused. "Why? I promised I'd stay-, is this because I still go visit my family every year? I told you I'd always come back, they even sounded interested in meeting you-"

"He's _here_ , Dan, he's come back."

"Who?"

"The one who brought the lotus breaker here. The one who tried to kill me so long ago." He looks down at his hands. "I'm not sure I'll come back again, if I do it won't be in your lifetime."

"I-I'm not going to leave you to die, Hiroshi!"

A groan fills the air, then the sound of cracking wood, the hut shutters, vines are crawling along its surface, constricting until the walls give in under their weight.

"Keep moving." Hiroshi steps back, the trees begin to move, to sway without a breeze, taking on a life of their own. "Don't let him find you."

"Wait! Hiroshi!" The forest spirit is gone.

The braches of the trees sway, reach out, block as much of the sky as they can. It's intimidating, the forest around them moves, every bush and every blade of grass, leaving them disoriented.

"We should go." Lloyd says, swallowing the sudden fear that began creeping up his spine. The forest never moved like this when he'd come here with his dad before. Had Dan already convinced him not to confuse people back then?

"I'm not leaving!" Dan insists.

"Dan, there's something out there that a magical forest spirit is scared of." Cole tries to make the man see reason. "Do you really think there's anything you can do to help?"

"You don't understand." Dan shakes his head. "Hiroshi _is_ this forest. Any mortal man could kill him if they tried hard enough."

"Dan." Zane steps forward. "So long as you remain here, Hiroshi will worry about you, and he will not be able to focus on protecting himself. I believe he will be fine, but for now it would be best if you left."

"I…" He looks up, then down at his feet and nods. "Okay."

* * *

"Man, was this forest always so creepy?" Jay laughs, inching a little closer to Echo.

"I would not know." Echo replies, stopping to examine a flower that appeared to be following their movement. "I have not been here before."

He reaches out, aiming to touch one of the wiggling vines slowly reaching out.

"Are you crazy?!" Jay pulls the nindroid back. "You don't just go touching creepy plants!"

"I apologize. I will refrain from doing so in the future."

"Let's just hurry up and find the others." Jay sighs. "I should have picked rock before, then maybe I'd be back on the Bounty instead of Nya."

"We are going in circles."

"What?"

"I recognize that rock." Echo points to said rock, which looked like any other rock to Jay. "We passed by it three times now."

"Oh, great." Jay lets out a little hysteric laugh. "We're lost in Hiroshi's labyrinth."

"We are not lost."

"What?" Jay turns to give the nindroid a confused look. "I thought you said we were going in circles?"

"I did. We are going in circles. But I have noticed a pattern."

"So…?"

"So I can navigate deeper into the forest, given enough time."

"M-maybe we should just go back to the ship?" Jay suggests instead. "We can call Zane again, tell him we're here, and ask him to come out."

"Brother?"

"Yeah, Zane."

"No, I mean he is behind you."

Jay turns and Zane skids to a stop before him.

"I will explain later." He hurries to say, pulling Jay along behind him and motioning for Echo to follow.

"Why are we running?" Jay asks anyway as soon as he's not scrambling to keep up. "And where are the others?"

"Something is following me." The titanium nindroid answers. "I was separated from the others and there is no time to figure out the pattern as well as find them."

"Wha-" Jay tries to look back, only for his foot to catch on a root and cause him to fall. It had only been a second, he was sure, but when he looks up the two nindroids are gone.

Jay is alone.

End chapter nine


	11. Chapter Ten

Hiroshi dug his toes into the ground beneath him. Everything here was his. The plants, the rocks, the animals, they were all his. He was their voice, their will, their free movement.

It fell onto him to remove that which was harmful, to preserve the balance of his land so that the cycle could go on.

_Everything that dies returns to the land. I am the land. When something dies it returns to me, and so everything here is mine._

Hiroshi hated to lose what belongs to him, it was why he'd learned to draw people deeper into the forest, after all, and if he needed to kill that man to protect what was his, then so be it.

* * *

There had been an instant, a mere second, in which Zane had felt relief upon exiting Hiroshi's labyrinth. He'd gotten out unscathed, he'd found both his brother and Jay before they could unknowingly walk into harm's way, and they had escaped. Only, Jay wasn't there when the nindroid turned back to look.

Panic immediately fills his mind, drowning out any thought or reason, and he quickly turns to his brother and demands.

"Where's Jay?" The other nindroid looks behind himself, as if the blue ninja would be found there, and Zane curses. Jay was the fastest, even if he didn't have the most stamina, and they'd barely run long enough to wear him out. Zane had been so sure of that, he hadn't thought of the obstacles, of whatever had been chasing him being just fast enough to... "I'm going back."

Echo starts to follow him and Zane has to force himself to turn back to the younger nindroid and say.

"Go back to the ship, Echo. Make sure the others are all there." He doesn't hear the other nindroid's response as he rushes into the forest.

"Jay!?" He calls out. "Jay, can you hear me?!"

He retraces their steps as best he can, but the pattern's changed already, and he's quickly in the thick of it, forest stretching endlessly in every direction. He pushes on regardless.

Time slowly slips by, seconds counted out and recorded like the ticking of a clock in his head. If he had a physical heart, would it be beating out of his chest? Finally, the forest around him begins to calm, the plants stilling, appearing to any who didn't know to have never moved at all.

"The one you're looking for-" Hiroshi appears, his clothes looking worse for wear. Torn, covered in dirt and what looked like blood. "-is over there."

Zane glances over where the forest spirit pointed, a short glance, and that's all it takes for the other to vanish as quickly as he came.

"Thank you." He says anyway, hoping the other would be able to hear him, that maybe the plants around him would convey his sentiment, and hurries in the indicated direction.

He find's Jay stumbling slowly, using trees to support himself as he walks, and hurries over.

"Jay!" The master of lightning looks up at him and immediately Zane notices the blood running down from a cut on his forehead. Jay's vision appears to go in and out of focus. He steps forward at Zane's approach, sways, stumbles, and falls right into the other. "What happened?"

"I… I fell…" He helps Jay to steady himself as he tries to stand up straight. "Y-you were gone… then… then I heard him… and… I don't remember the rest."

"Heard him?" Had Jay encountered the person that Hiroshi was scared of? "Do you remember what he said?"

"Um… it was… i-it was…" He begins to lilt to one side and Zane shakes his head.

"Never mind. It's not important." He moves one of Jay's arms over his shoulder and begins to head in the direction he believes is the exit. Jay lets out a little giggle, grabs the front of Zane's gi, and asks.

"When… when'd you l-learn… to use… those?"

"Use what?"

"suf… suf-fuh… combo words."

"Suffixes?"

"Yeah!"

"Did you perhaps mean to say contraction?"

"Uh… May-bye… Be. Maybe."

Had he been using them?

"I had not noticed."

"Aw… I s-shouldn't… you stopped…"

The likelihood of Jay having a concussion was alarmingly high. Adjusting his grip on the other, he picks up the pace a little.

* * *

The stars glittered beautifully over Hiroshi's labyrinth. Dan did his best to commit it to memory, so he could paint it later. He hikes the bag on his back up a little more. If he remembered right, the hut used to be around… here!

"You came back." Hiroshi's voice greets him as soon as he returns, as he always does, with the same statement.

"Of course." He replies, as he usually does, with a kind smile. "I made a promise."

"The house is gone, though."

"We can build a new one."

"All your paintings were ruined."

"I can make more."

The forest spirit is quiet as he removes his back pack and takes the sleeping bag out. It isn't until he's unrolled it that the other speaks up.

"I had a chance to kill him."

Dan knows exactly who he's talking about. The person responsible for the lotus breaker. The person who, for some reason, had felt the need to destroy Hiroshi's labyrinth.

"Why didn't you?"

"Because someone else would have gotten hurt if I did."

"…I thought that was just how life was?" He says carefully. "The strong live while the weak die."

"Humans are strange." He replies. "You all die so easily…"

Dan slides into his sleeping bag, situates his backpack under his head to act as his pillow, and watches the stars above him.

"I never thanked you." Dan shifts a little bit, snuggles down into his sleeping bag a little more. "For saving me so long ago."

Out of his peripheral he sees Hiroshi move to sit by his head, then the forest spirit leans over him and all Dan can see is his vivid green eyes.

"So many humans die here." He pauses for a moment. "I wanted to see one live."

"Well, that's too bad for you." The painter chuckles. "Because you're stuck with me now, whether you like it or not."

"Rest." Hiroshi leans back and the stars fill his vision once more. "I'll make sure nothing eats you while you sleep."

* * *

"It's only a little cut, Zane, I don't need to go to the hospital." Jay whines, batting away his hands as he tried to examine the wound more closely. "It doesn't even hurt, anyway."

"Yeah, Zane, if Jay isn't whining like a baby about the pain like he usually does, he's probably fine." Cole adds, getting a glare and a pout from the blue ninja. "What? It's true!"

Jay had managed to regain his bearings during their walk back to the Bounty, had even managed to walk on his own, and now none of the others would believe Zane when he said Jay's wound was serious. It was frustrating and worrisome.

"Alright, the tea is ready." Sensei Wu announced, causing Kai to groan.

He'd made it very clear he was dreading having to drink it.

Jay used the distraction to slip away, much to Zane's annoyance, but he was forced to stay and watch as the siblings drank the tea so he could document the effects.

Still, worry lingers in the back of his mind, and he resolves to inform Jay about the signs of a concussion and ask him to come forward should he experience any, later.

"Am I going to have to drink that stuff for the rest of my life?" Kai whines, head hitting the countertop with a painful sounding _thunk_. "I swear I nearly threw up after I drank it."

"Don't be so dramatic, Kai." Nya rolls her eyes at her brother's antics. "It wasn't that bad."

"Geez, Kai, seems your sister has a stronger stomach than you do." Cole snickered.

The chattering continues, none the wiser to the shadow slipping by the door and down the hall.

End chapter ten

**Author's Note:**

> This story is a cross post from fanfiction dot net. If you don't want to wait to see the whole story, you can find it there under the same name. If you're fine with waiting, this story will be updated twice a week, every Monday and Thursday, until it is complete.  
> I am open to constructive criticism, including any tags you think I should add or modify, given that you're polite and don't forget to mention what you liked about the story, too.  
> Thank you for reading and I hope you all enjoy the story. ^u^


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